Soft cookies generally have a water content of at least about 6% by weight of the cookie. As the moisture content, or aqueous liquid humectant content of a cookie dough is increased to provide a higher moisture content in a cookie: (a) cookie spread tends to increase, (b) the dough tends to lose viscosity and machinability, and (c) longer baking times at a given baking temperature are generally needed to develop color. As used herein cookie spread is defined as the horizontal movement in the dough mass as it is subjected to oven baking conditions. Generally the greater the amount of moisture present in the dough piece as it bakes the greater the horizontal movement in the dough piece. According to Matz, S. A. et al., Cookie and Cracker Technology, 2nd Ed., AVI Publishing Co., Inc., Westport, CT, pg. 151 (1978), the control of cookie spread is one of the most serious problems confronting the production man. Minor variations in appearance, flavor, and texture are usually accepted with little complaint, but a cookie which spreads so much that it cannot be filled in the package, or one that spreads too little, causing slack fill or excess height for the package, can create havoc on the packaging line and generate large amounts of scrap.
Cookie size is commonly controlled in commercial practice by altering the amount of water in the dough formula correlated with changes in oven baking conditions, see Matz, supra, at page 153, wherein availability of free water in the dough is described as the most important factor in controlling cookie spread during baking.
According to Matz, S. A., Cookie and Cracker Technology, The AVI Publishing Company, Inc., Westport, Conn., page 12, (1968), increasing the intensity of chlorine treatment of a soft wheat flour reduces the diameter and increases the thickness of test bake cookies made from the flour. It is reported that the diameter of a cookie made with an unbleached flour of pH 5.88 had a diameter of 818 mm whereas the diameter of a cookie made with flour bleached to a pH of 4.87 was only 706 mm.
However, the use of bleached flour in a commercial bakery is undesirable for a number of reasons. First, bleached or brominated flour is normally bleached with chlorine or bromine gas. As stated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,157,406 and 4,259,362 both issued to Hanamoto, et. al., the bleaching of flour has become suspect and it is desirable to avoid such treatments and chemicals additives wherever possible. According to these patents foreign countries prohibit the use of bleached flours in their baked products. As a result, these countries do not import American products which contain bleached flour. Therefore the use of bleached flour is undesirable both from health and marketing aspects.
Another problem in using bleached flour in a large commercial bakery is that it is seldom used in other cookie products. Therefore, separate handling and storage facilities must be set up and maintained to handle a proportionately small amount of the overall flour requirements which undesirably increases per unit production costs.
Furthermore, Matz (1968), supra, at pages 120-121, teaches that chlorine bleached flours are not recommended for soft type cookies where relatively large amounts of tenderizing and moisture-retaining ingredients such as sugar, shortening, and egg yolk are used. According to Matz, if the flour is decreased too much, as when large amounts of enriching ingredients are added, the cookie will lack body and may become too fragile.
In the production of wire-cut soft cookies, Matz reports at page 127, it is recommended to use a medium strong soft red winter wheat flour, lightly bleached with chlorine, with an ash content of about 0.39% and a protein content of about 9.5%, or a strong soft red winter wheat, unbleached, having an ash of about 0.41 % and a protein content of about 9.5%. It is further disclosed that the sugar should be predominantly granulated with perhaps 18 to 24% invert, and that eggs should be present at the 14% level, each on a flour weight basis. However, these formulas require a red winter wheat flour with a relatively high protein content, a large amount of eggs, and a narrow range for the invert sugar content.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,668,522 to Cappel et al. discloses controlling the size and texture of cookies which have storage-stable texture variability through the use of a specific mixing procedure. According to the patent, adding the required total amount and type of sugar in varying proportions at different points in the dough mixing sequence permits control of the size and texture of the cookie.
According to Cappel et al., it is known that cookie size is affected by the distribution of water between the starch. Hydrophilic flour or other hydrophilic components which impede sugar dissolution, it is disclosed, decrease cookie size. Increasing the sugar content in the cookie dough reduces migration of water towards the hydrophilic starch in the hotter outer zones of the cookie. This reduction in migration, according to Cappel et al., causes a less viscous interior and greater lateral expansion. See also, Yamazaki, W. T., "Laboratory Testing of Flours and Cookie Quality Research", Cereal Science Today, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 98, 100, 102-104, 125, April 1962; and Brenneis, L. S., "Qualitative Factors in the Evaluation of Cookie Flavours", The Baker's Digest, Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 66-69 (1965). However, control of cookie spread in soft cookies containing unbleached flour is not taught.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,444,799 and 4,624,856 each to Vanderveer et al. teach a method and composition for producing soft cookies having an extended shelf life by the use of edible firm humectant gels. The gels contain an edible gum capable of being set by calcium ions. The gel is capable of being ground and is incorporated into the dough to produce a product which will retain its fresh baked, moist, tender texture for an extended period of time. In Example 2 of each patent, soft cookies are made with a bread type wheat flour. Controlling spread in soft cookies which contain unbleached flour is not disclosed.
According to each of the two above-mentioned Hanamoto et al. patents, bleaching wheat flour improves the texture, grain, volume, and eating quality of cakes produced from the flour. The color of white cake, it is taught, is also improved when bleached flour is incorporated into the cake mix. The Hanamoto et al. patents teach that the baking properties of wheat flour itself can be improved without use of chlorine or other chemical agents by heating raw, non-dehydrated soft wheat flour at a temperature of 49.degree. to 93.degree. C. for a period of 1 hour to ten weeks. The so-treated flour exhibits improved baking properties and may be used to prepare high-sugar baked goods, such as cakes and the like, according to the patents.
Improved properties may also be obtained, it is taught, by treating starch to obtain limited swelling thereof. The starch is mixed with excess water and held at a temperature of 54.degree. to 71.degree. C. for a period of time great enough to swell the starch granules but not so great as to cause fragmentation thereof.
The heat-treated flour and the swelled starch may be used in combination to prepare cakes which, according to the patents, exhibit properties substantially more improved than those obtained when the products of each treatment is employed separately and more improved than those produced from bleached flour.
The present invention provides a method for controlling oven spread of soft cookies having unbleached flour and high humectant contents so as to obtain a consistently sized product on a continuous, mass production basis. The soft cookies of the present invention have an unexpectedly moist and tender texture for extended periods of time.